94 Self-Perception and Identity
friend Li Yanling. Like other scholars in the Genealogy, the two are
remembered as talented students with a particular knack for
memorization. From the age of seven, they had, for instance, the
ability to “recite whatever they had read [even] just once and were
also able to memorize a thousand characters a day.” Moreover, the
two also read, studied, and memorized Tang dynasty poems (方七
齡二先生同入儒讀書過目成誦日記千言偶閱唐詩遂法之咸能吟
詠; JXCP, p. 56 ).^44
Their turn to Islamic studies is explained in terms of intellectual
dissatisfaction. We are told that after studying the Chinese classics
for a number of years, Chang decided that they were not enough.
He intimated to his friend Li that they had learned all that they
could from Chinese books and that they would now do better to
study the Islamic classics (至十一齡常先生與計曰書中所求大約如
斯而已莫若習經; JXCP, p. 56 ). Li agreed and duly told his parents,
who gave him permission to study in the local mosque (李先生諾
歸告父母咸允之入本坊學經; JXCP, p. 56 ). The two enrolled and
once again demonstrated their talents, for whatever they were
taught, they always remembered (凡所授輒記不忘; JXCP, p. 56 ).
They studied all Islamic books “from Fasl to Saraf,”^45 and the more
they learned, the more they found it enjoyable (及接 “非斯黎” 至
“塞而夫” 諸經乃笑曰漸得佳境矣).^46 Chang was particularly dili-
gent and often stayed awake all night studying beside the lantern
(JXCP, p. 56 ).
Chang Yunhua and Li Yanling began their studies at about the
same age that boys born to non-Muslim gentry families would have
begun theirs. Their studies at a local school, or at home, constituted
the first steps in what might in turn lead to a successful career as an
examination candidate. They studied Chinese characters and the
Confucian classics, as well as Tang poetry (including recitation and
—————
44. Li Yanling was probably seven years old and Chang two years older.
45. The two books are the Persian Sufi Chahar fasl (Four chapters; in Chinese
transliteration fei si li), and the Arabic Saraf (Grammar; in Chinese transliteration
sai er fu). The first was later translated into Chinese by one of Chang’s students,
and the latter is an essential part of the curriculum in every madrasa in the Islamic
world.
46. The Islamic texts appear in the story under their original Arabic and Per-
sian titles and are referred to as jing—“classics.”